Listening Online – RFI

RFI – Radio France Internationale – is an excellent online resource for listening comprehension. Not does the primary page provide new stories and links to radio programs which can be accessed online, but rfi.fr also offers some excellent language-learning resources.

The RFI homepage:
www.rfi.fr

Learn French:
Accueil Langue Française

One of my favorite things about the online French listening exercises at RFI is that they include exercises from many different French-speaking countries. Interested in hearing the French accent specific to the Congo? Or maybe Senegal? RFI is a great resource for practicing and appreciating all sorts of different French accents. Check it out!

French Vocabulary Online – Martial Arts

Yesterday we looked at crochet – today we're going to balance things out a bit by looking at martial arts.

For starters:
martial arts = les arts martiaux (m)

The Wikipedia article: Art Martial

In this article we learn all sorts of vocab such as:
un sport de combat = a combat sport
un sabre = a sabre
un couteau = a knife
la compétition = competition

As well as nouns and adjectives dealing with nationality:
le Japon = Japan
asiatique = Asian
japonais(e) = Japanese
coréen(ne) = Korean
birman(e) = Burmese
chinois(e) = Chinese

This is an easy subject to find links for, so I will make no attempt to list a representative sampling, but here are a few:

French Judo Federation
Capoeira France
le Taekwondo
French Karate Federation

And of course, there are a ton of related videos on YouTube, but just one as an example:

 

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/7mFnN1qaa0o?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&hd=1

How about you? What did you find?

Learning French Online – Vocabulary

The easiest, quickest, and most effective way to learn a language is to pick up and move to a country that speaks it. Once in a sink-or-swim situation you'd be surprised at how well you can swim. Unfortunately, this is not always practical. Given this reality, we look for ways to study the language in our day-to-day lives and online.

There are two essential aspects to learning a language:

1) Study it.
2) Use it.

The complication comes in deciding just how you will accomplish these simple steps. While the internet is full of online activities and lessons, some free, some costly, one of my favorite ways to study French has nothing to do with lessons, activities, or fees.

Start with what you know and love.

It's that simple. What interests you? Do you spend every free moment golfing? On the tennis courts? Creating new crafty gifts for your friends? Painting? Discovering music? With your pet? Whatever your hobby, your career, your passion – research it in French.

Assuming you have a basic grasp of the fundamentals, you'll be surprised at how much you can pick up this way. Many French words are similar to English words and you will be working with a subject that you know well. What is interesting is easy to learn and remember and what's more – it's easy to use. Start thinking about your hobby in French. Are you making a shopping list for your next trip to the craft store or REI? Write it in French. Have friends who are into the same thing and who also speak French? Practice with them!

The internet is full of excellent online resources for building your grasp of vocabulary and grammar in French.

Start at: www.fr.wikipedia.org
Read about your hobby.

(Not sure what it's called in French?
Look it up at: www.wordreference.com)

Then click on the external links on the Wikipedia article (you'll find these at the bottom of the article under "liens externes".)

Finally, enter some of the key vocabulary terms you've found in French in your favorite search engine and have fun!

Okay, seriously now – I want your comments! What are your favorite hobbies, pastimes, interests?

l’Alliance Française

As a francophone or francophile, you have surely heard of the Alliance Française. The Alliance Française is a not-for-profit organization that exists to encourage knowledge of French language and culture around the world. As the website for the Paris Alliance Française says:

Qu’est ce qu’une Alliance française ?

Chaque Alliance française est une association de droit local à but non lucratif, qui exerce sa mission de manière autonome, en dehors de tout engagement de nature politique ou religieuse.
Les Alliances françaises ont en commun la poursuite de trois missions essentielles :

• Proposer des cours de français, en France et dans le monde, à tous les publics

• Mieux faire connaître les cultures françaises et francophones

• Favoriser la diversité culturelle

Les Alliances françaises ont en partage les valeurs qui font la force et la vie du réseau et sous-tendent chacune de leurs actions :

• Le respect de la diversité des cultures, la passion de l’échange et la solidarité

• Les valeurs associatives

• La convivialité

• La recherche de l’excellence dans toutes les activités entreprises

• La modernité et l’innovation

Haven't been to an Alliance Franaçise event or tried an Alliance class? You're missing out! The local Alliance is a great place to go if you're looking to meet up with other French speakers. Whether you're a beginner or a native speaker, you're sure to find something fun at your local Alliance. Check out the Alliance Française USA website or simple google "Alliance Française" and your city name to see if there is an Alliance Française near you.

If you're in the Sacramento area, I've made it easy for you: Alliance Française de Sacramento

*** One of the coolest benefits offered by the AF? A language assessment test. And it's free! If you're interested in taking the test visit the Alliance Française USA.***

Online Verb Conjugator

Looking for a quick, easy way to check the conjugation of a verb?

I love this site for it's simplicity (and for the humor of the link). You can choose the "version polie:"

Allez vous faire conjuguer

Or the "version impolie:"

Va te faire conjuguer

Both links take you to the same page, and as far as I can tell, the pages are the same – except for the title.

It's unfortunate that they don't organize their verbs in the "boot" friendly pattern (I wouldn't recommend memorizing them the way they have them written out), but it is a great resource for looking up a verb quickly.

Periods, and commas, and colons! Oh My!

"Ah ! La ponctuation ! Comme cela exaspère ! Ou… Au contraire, comme elle sied bien à la compréhension de ce qui pourrait être illisible et totalement inaccessible à la logique humaine et surtout follement essoufflant sans cette petite virgule… Fort à propos !"

Punctuation can seem dull, but just try reading long texts without it. Or, try sounding like a professional without using it – good luck.

You may have seen this little exercise before –

– Add the appropriate punctuation to the following phrase:

Woman without her man is nothing

Try it! What does your sentence look like? What does it mean? …

You didn't do it, did you?

Go on. I'll wait.

…

                            …

                                                            …

Okay. Usually, the punctuation of this sentence breaks down along gender lines. Men tend to punctuate it like this:

Woman without her man, is nothing.

or

Woman, without her man, is nothing.

Women tend to punctuate it like this:

Woman, without her, man is nothing.

 

What did I tell you? Punctuation is important after all. It's the key to who wins the battle of the sexes.

Punctuation is equally important in French, but (and here's the kicker) it doesn't follow all the same rules in English. Why should it? Where would be the fun in that?

Fortunately, I just recently discovered a straightforward, clearly organized website all about French punctuation – in French no less! Check it out or bookmark it for the next time you have to write an essay in French class or a business letter to a French colleaugue. Are you writing a little marketing phrase in French for an American business? Why not get the punctuation right?

La Ponctuation

The really great thing about this site for anglophones? It points out the differences between French and English punctuation. So thoughtful of the authors!

 

(There are some differences between European French punctuation and Canadian French punctuation. I'm less certain about other varieties of French. This website refers to European French. If you know anything about any other francophone countries and how their punctuation differs from that of France, let me know!)

TV5 Conjugating Verbs 2

Conjugating in neat little exercises and tables is helpful, but that's not really the goal. What counts is being able to conjugate verbs in real sentences – in the context of actually expressing something.

In this previous post we looked at a verb conjugating game at TV5 which offers drills in verb conjugation. There's another similar game at TV5 which is a harder, but also far closer to real-life use of the language.

TV5 Conjugaison en contexte

 

In this game you are given sentences with one verb left in the infinitive. It is up to you to determine the correct tense, mood, and subject and to conjugate the verb accordingly. At the end you'll get a printable scorecard like this:

A few things to know about this game:

– It's pretty hard; even at the easiest level you'll be expected to conjugate the conditional and the subjunctive. (At the harder levels, the verbs themselves get harder – more irregular.)

-As you can tell from my results, a missed accent will make your answer wrong. I just accepted this and personally count these answers as correct since it can be difficult to type the accents with an American keyboard.

* * *

So, did you try it? How'd you do?

Free Online French-English Dictionary 1

One of my favorite FR<>ENG resources is www.wordreference.com. This is an excellent, free, online multilingual dictionary. As with any reference, you will need to make sure that the word you find is actually the word you want, but WordReference is often a great place to start.

You can enter a word or set phrase, ask for help with a word or phrase, and answer other users' questions as well. Since WordReference is part dictionary, part forum, there are a few conventions you should remember:

-Always check previous entries to see if someone else has asked your question before. Don't just post a new question without checking. Odds are, someone else has already asked.

-WordReference asks all posters to state their maternal language and country. If you are asking about an idiomatic French expression, check to see if your answerer is actually French, or just an American answering based off of his high school textbook.

-French varies from country to country. Often, a native speaker from Canada and a native speaker from France will be equally helpful. However, some words and phrases do vary – pay careful attention to where an answerer is from. Maybe you really need an answer from someone who's native language is Haitian French.

-If you ask a question and find the answer somewhere else, post the answer below your question. It will help the next lost soul!

Wordreference.com has a very straightforward layout, but some people miss the most helpful elements.

-Once you have entered your search term, you will see a straightforward list of translations:

**Don't miss the "verb conjugator" link next to the entry if your word is a verb!**

-Beneath this basic list is a list of compound forms:

-Beneath this is a list of forum entries. If you're looking for a really tricky word or phrase, this is probably where you'll find it. Click on the title of the most promising thread to see what people had to say. If you don't find the phrase you're looking for, click on "suite" to see more phrases or "Pour poser la questions dans les forums" to post your own question:

-When you're in the forums, don't forget to check where people are from! (You'll see this information at the top right of each person's post.)

As always, I want to know what you think of this link! Have you found it useful? Do you have alternatives? Do you have any questions?